Yeferson Cossio spends $175K on leg lengthening surgery

News

By Katherine Donlevy

His height was his Achilles heel.

A Colombian man spent $175,000 to undergo the “most painful surgery ever” to ditch his 5-foot-8 frame and reach new heights.

Instagram star Yeferson Cossio, 29, revealed he underwent lower limb lengthening surgery to stretch his legs an additional 6 inches and become 6 feet tall.

“I’m not a dwarf, nor am I the tallest,” Cossio said in Spanish in a video posted to Instagram.

“Yes, my legs are pretty but I hate them … I am self-conscious like almost all human beings with some parts of my body and I have a couple hundred million pesos to use here to change it.”

Cossio, who boasts more than 28 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, estimates that he spent between 200 million and 700 million Colombian pesos for the treatment — the equivalent of roughly $50,000 and $175,000. 

The excruciating and intense surgery involves breaking a patient’s bones, inserting a metal rod and using an external device to slowly lengthen the gap multiple times a day.

“As the space between the ends of the bone opens up, the body continues to produce new tissue in the gap until the desired length of bone has been generated,” according to the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Specialists typically separate the bones for a total of one millimeter per day — meaning Cossio painfully lengthened his legs for 152 days, or 6 months, before achieving his new 6-foot frame.

The next several months are filled with physical therapy treatments so patients can become accustomed to walking with their new legs.

Cossio admitted to his followers that the surgery was purely for “aesthetic” purposes.

“Two years ago, I had an issue with my legs that I don’t really want to talk about because it’s very personal … But one of the things that had the most impact on me was to do with leg stretching,” Cossio said.

He rattled off conspiracies surrounding his mysterious leg problems — including that a drug dealer severely broke them after finding out Cossio fooled around with his girlfriend — but did not disclose the true reason he pursued the expensive and painful surgery.

In the Instagram video, Cossio’s surgeon ensured the influencer that he would be able to return to his normal life after healing from the surgery, including walking, exercising and jumping.

Cossio appeared happy with his new height — and told his followers he didn’t plan on going under the knife a second time to grow even taller.

The social media star is one of many who have shelled out thousands to grow extra inches.

Brian Sanchez, a 33-year-old mortgage broker from Georgia, spent more than $100,000 on a Turkish leg-lengthening surgery to add 7 inches to his height — despite already being 6 feet tall.

Moses Gibson, a 5-foot-5 41-year-old from Minnesota, paid $75,000 to add 3 inches to his height in 2016. In March, he dropped another $98,000 to add another 2 inches.